Donald Yazzie, Navajo Handwoven Rug, Wide Ruins, Wool, 75” x 48”

After the great Navajo rug revival at the end of the 19th century, spearheaded by Lorenzo Hubbell at Ganado and J. B. Moore of Crystal, many felt that the quality of Navajo weaving was beginning another decline. Mary Cabot Wheelwright, wealthy Bostonian and patron of the arts, was one of the most vocal in this regard. In 1920, after attending a Yei Bi Chei ceremony at Canyon de Chelly, she met Cozy McSparron, owner of the Chinle Trading Post. Wheelwright voiced her concerns about commercial dye colors, poor weaving quality and unimaginative designs. She found that McSparron agreed. The two then began a “revitalization” campaign, attempting to bring back the banded serape patterns of the Classic period, using mostly warm, pleasing, vegetal dyed colors. Their efforts were rewarded and appreciated by buyers. In 1932 the Eastern Association on Indian Affairs took up the same crusade, encouraging weavers to return to Classic style patterns in natural colors. (Amsden:1934) By 1938 this weaving revitalization was well established in the Chinle area.